HMANA Lunch & Learn Series: Turkey Vultures
Wednesday, January 24 at 12:00 pm EST
The Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) was excited to welcome raptor expert, Bill Clark to speak about Vultures! The Turkey Vulture is a New World Vulture that occurs widely in the Americas, but barely into Canada. Although they have had a bad reputation in the past, nowadays they have an expanding group of fans & devotees. Bill discussed its plumages, identification, feeding and scavenging behavior, night roosts, nesting, migration, and other interesting aspects of the life of this common widespread scavenger. Also covered were the changes in its taxonomy, other New World vultures (including two similar species in the same genus), and why they are sometimes called buzzards.
Bill Clark is a photographer, author, researcher, and lecturer and has over 50 years experience working with birds of prey, including 5 years as Director of NWF’s Raptor Information Center. He has published numerous articles on raptor subjects; has traveled extensively world-wide studying, observing, and photographing raptors; and regularly led raptor and birding tours and workshops, both home and abroad, with Raptours, which is now being run by his colleague, Sergio Seipke.
He has been living in the Rio Grande Valley since 2002. He regularly teaches evening and weekend courses on raptor field identification and biology and frequently presents lectures on raptor subjects. Bill has written a raptor field guide for Europe, another for Mexico and Central America and yet another for Africa. He is a coauthor of the Photographic Guide to North American Raptors and the completely revised Peterson series guide, Hawks. He has on-going research projects on Harlan’s Hawk, White-tailed Hawk, and Harris’s Hawk.
